


Put Your Hands Together (and pray)

by scrubbadub



Category: Gravity Falls, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Body Horror, Especially as the story progresses, F/M, Gen, Horror, M/M, Mind the Tags, Psychological Horror, The Nightmare Realm (Gravity Falls), They'll get pretty fuckin heavy, Violence, like seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 00:20:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13282956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrubbadub/pseuds/scrubbadub
Summary: The story has been sung and the song has been written, and the world heals. Our three heroes are never able to catch a break, though, as it seems to be, and a vengeful god from somewhere terrifying has their sights set on them.Will they survive, or will this be their final adventure? Will they cross through the Nightmare Realm alive?//A Gravity Falls slash Adventure Zone crossover! Couldn't get the idea out of my head, so y'all can have fun with it! Should be updating every week or so, with some art for every chapter!





	Put Your Hands Together (and pray)

[](http://i.imgur.com/fgjxGIp)

  
After the Hunger was defeated, after the story had been written and the song had been sung; after the world listened to the heroes fight for their survival, watched them chase the most unimaginable horror away, things… perhaps they weren’t quiet, but they were peaceful, more peaceful than they had known for a while, and things were all right.

  
A few months into the first year after the fight, Lup finally got her body back, and Barry was not, in fact, the first to hug her. That goes to Taako. They spent the entire day together, relearning how to physically exist, coexist in the same space, to learn again what it meant to be two parts of a whole, and it was good.

  
The Bureau continued. It changed, morphed into the Bureau of Benevolence, when at first it was Balance, and Lucretia dedicated her work to making sure the world was safe. She would fix what she had broken, in her attempts to try and save the world, her family; it wasn’t all fixed, but things were healing.

The world was healing.

  
And so it is that in the natural progression of things, we see our heroes, all scattered across a table, inside a tavern, sharing a drink; they’re laughing about something, and oblivious to the eyes watching from the paintings on the tavern walls. All they know is this is some fabulous fucking beer, and goddamn it, they’ve earned this day off.

Taako bursts out with an exclamation of agreement at something. Whatever it was, it must have been a great joke, because he’s snickering the entire time. “Okay, my guys, just, just listen- you gotta hear me out! The whole point of that joke- Merle, you lil’ _shit_ , you know who started that fuckin’ joke in the first place, don’t you dare leave the credit out--”

[](http://i.imgur.com/SerhKcB)

Merle is grinning into his mug of alcohol, moisture collecting on his beard in places it’s been spilled. He can always wash it. It’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. “You say that, but I still tell it better. You don’t include the best part about the drow elf and the bugbear--”

Magnus is trying to hold back laughter and terribly failing. He’s got a low alcohol tolerance, it seems. “Come on! I, come on, guys, how come it’s always gotta be a sex joke? I’ve got some good jokes.”

“Your jokes fuckin’ stink. They’re doody jokes.” A raspberry accompanies this. Magnus chuckles, then downs his drink, and orders another. “...you know, like- don’t fuckin’ give me that shitty look, you stump, lemme speak. Let Taako speak. He’s got some- some good narrative juice for you guys, here! He’s got the best fuckin’ shit you could ever get your stinky cheese doodle hands on!” More stifled laughter, but he grows somber.

  
A rare moment of levity. Today, they celebrate. It’s been a long life, so far, and it’ll continue to be longer, but right now, they have each other; and Taako knows that he’ll conceptually outlive Magnus, maybe even Merle- even if the asshole did somehow manage to make himself Santa Clause- but for now, he has family, and it’s a comfort he had to grow re-used to.

“You two lil’ shits are some of the best people to happen to me. Magnus, with your, you’ve got this dumb smile you always get when you’re about to fight somethin’, this wicked grin when you’re back to back with a bud’, a way with your hands- you- the thing you do! With the ducks! That’s a Magnus thing! You’re, I don’know, the glue to this whole dumb group, and I don't… really, uh. I- It meant a lot to always have a guy in my side of the ring when it mattered. When we were getting those relics for Luc’.” He hasn’t forgiven her, but that doesn’t mean he can erase a century of having her as family. Some things can _never_ be forgiven. It doesn’t necessarily mean that he won’t still consider her important. “Thank you. For being there.”

  
Magnus is crying, now, gently, and he wipes away tears. He tries to go in for a hug, but Taako stops him, because he still has more to say. He has more to say than he can currently articulate, hasn’t been able to articulate it for so long, but he has the words for what he wants to say right now, tipsy and in a rare moment of self awareness and emotion, and doesn’t want to waste it. He turns to Merle.

“You’re a little shit. Literally. You’re a pretty good cleric, though, I’ll give you that. You’re a cool guy, too, even though you’ve got this nasty plant fetish-” Merle sputters and tries to refute this. Taako just laughs. “You know I’m right, fuck you, let me finish- you may not have been as, like- as outspoken as Magnus was about your affection, but you still gave a shit, in your grumpy ol’ man aesthetic you had goin’ on- _still_ going on! I’d be dead without you, too, so kudos to that. You two are the two best friends a guy could ask for. Means a lot.”

And the trio takes a moment to let these words sink in, before Magnus finally drags Taako into a hug, grinning and teary-eyed. “Taaks, shit, man- you’re, you’re so cool, and Ijus’-” Merle gets in on the hug, too, and the night continues on, the mood set for the night.

  
It comes to a close, and when they go home, or rest in the tavern for the night, their hearts are light, and their dreams are good.

Except for one person, whose dreams are illuminated by yellow eyes, and the most miasmic sky he’s ever seen.

There are many unimaginable horrors waiting to be found, and sometimes they choose their victims carefully. Hm.

\--

_Wherever he is, this fucking blows, dude. Mega blows. Super fucking blows. It smells like sulfur and carbonite and iron, but the metallic blood type of iron, and not the ore kind; they have two very distinct smells, in fact, and he’d readily shove the fucking difference into Merle’s face. He can feel a hangover at the back of his head, a headache trying to pound at his mind, a distant staccato-- and it begins to mistily rain. He puts a hand up to watch it fall._

_It’s blood. What the fresh hell is this?_

_It’s not rain, it’s blood, dripping down off of the brim of his hat and down his scarf, down his shirt-- and there’s a gust of wind that knocks his hat off of his head, before he can try to grab it, try and put it back on. He reaches out for it; the shadows liquify and snatch up to consume it, hungry and always watching._

_He doesn’t know where this is, but whatever the shadows made has teeth, and it’s eyeing him, so he runs, because gods, fuck that. Fuck that with a ten foot pole. A barbed pole. He’s telling someone about this nightmare when he wakes up._

\--

Magnus is the first to wake up. He has the world’s worst hangover, and it’s making itself known. He takes some fantasy aspirin and deals with it, goes upon his means of waking up, makes himself some coffee- it’s not anything terrible, so he can deal with it. If push comes to shove, he can take some fantasy ibuprofen, too. Maybe a nearby cleric or a store has some anti nausea medicine. That’ll sure teach him to try and drink the same amount as a half bugbear. Those guys can down a lot!

He has full means to tell Taako about the morning he’s had- he found a penny underneath his shoe, pretty lucky- but when he strides into the separate tavern room to look for him… he stops.

Something _bad_ happened here. Fuck. Something really bad.

There are signs of a magical struggle, that’s for sure, and there are eyes burnt into the walls; white, downy feathers rest on the bed, edges singed and burnt, and there are runes scratched into the ceiling. The bed looks like it might collapse at any given moment, and overall, it looks like a fucking horror scene unfolded here.

The eyes all consecutively blink at him, and, momentarily mute, he pulls out his Stone of Farspeech, and call Merle. He groggily answers and starts whining about the time of day, but when he doesn’t respond, finally, he asks what’s wrong.

“We have a _biiiiiig_ problem, Merle. Somethin’ happened to Taako. We gotta call Lucretia.”


End file.
